Full Service | Sunday, January 17, 2021

[Music] good morning everyone let's all stand together welcome to those of you in the room and those joining us online um if you're in the foyer make your way in and let's sing some songs together [Music] me on me [Music] one more time [Music] me [Music] from me would you be [Music] [Music] get into the darkness to shine we rise our god [Music] of is [Music] get out of the [Music] god house [Music] [Music] is [Music] if [Music] [Music] again [Music] is [Music] my oh god [Music] [Music] in the passion of our faith [Music] is the mercy of our god [Music] is [Music] is [Music] me [Music] guilty [Music] while the guilty [Music] the death will be on disportion [Music] ourselves [Music] [Music] i give my whole life [Music] [Applause] [Music] him forever [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] the father's arms [Music] the precious blood of jesus christ [Music] leave behind your aggressive mistakes [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] the precious world [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] christ is risen [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] is [Music] forgiveness [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] god almighty through your holy spirit conceiving christ the son jesus our savior i believe in god our father i believe in christ the son i believe in the holy spirit [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] darkness [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] again jesus christ [Music] [Music] jesus christ i believe in god our [Music] i believe [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] father just so thankful we can meet today just sing these songs out loud and just the words in them um we do believe in you we believe in the power of jesus and the resurrection lord we just thank you for letting us meet today in jesus name amen you guys can all take a seat and while you're being seated we have a video for [Music] you [Music] hey everyone i'm joe and this is my wife ann and we're excited to let you know about some of the things going on at athe creek first before we dive into the teaching be sure to have those communion elements ready to go since we'll be taking communion together during the service today also beginning next sunday january 24th we'll be opening up sunday night worship for those who would like to join us in person tickets for that service will become available at noon on thursday along with our main weekend services if you're more comfortable taking in that service from home we will be live streaming sunday night worship at 6 00 pm i love that sunday night worship you know another thing we love for you to know about is that our pastors are baptizing folks every month in the warm tropical waters of the willamette river if you've never been baptized but have wanted to be i'd encourage you to give the office a call to schedule your baptism our pastoral care team would love to connect with you and lastly we wanted to let you know that we are looking for folks who would like to serve in our children's ministry if you have a heart for kids or are looking for a way to serve at athe creek this is a wonderful way to plug in and get started to sign up visit our website or head to the info table at the end of today's service to find out more that's a great way to get to know people too hey thanks for tuning in now let's grab our bibles and get into the word all right hey welcome it's good to see you guys all here uh how's the 12 o'clockers doing yeah that's what i like to hear right there uh it's just good because you know the last service i was noticing was a little sleepy and it's kind of a dark gray day but i thought those 12 o'clockers they'll come through you know and you guys got your beauty sleeve little extra sleeping in and chilled out day on sunday glad you're here let's get right to it why don't you grab your bible turn with me to jeremiah chapter 35 for our text today if you're just joining us one of the things we do here at the creek is we go verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book through the bible and we don't skip anything and and i love doing that because well there's so many benefits but one of the benefits is you wouldn't spend time in jeremiah 35 at least a lot of churches you won't find sermons on jeremiah 35 because some people might say what's it have to do with anything there's a weird group of people called the rehabilites and they do something and they don't drink some wine and there's some bro but what's the deal well that's the thing going verse by verse we have the context of the story we know what's going on in jeremiah's day if you've been traveling with us and it starts to make perfect sense and it's a good illustration for us today one of the things that we've noticed in the book of jeremiah is when god speaks to the people of israel he uses jeremiah to speak but also object lessons we've had several object lessons on one you know like the potter's house remember that when jared went jeremiah went down to the potter's house and and the lord used the pottery and stuff as an illustration of god being the master potter and jesus who's the master potter and shaping our lives and it's a great illustration well we have another one of those illustrations and again it might not make a lot of sense to you unless you kind of know a little the back story and what's going on in jeremiah's day on wednesday night we're going to be looking at jeremiah 33 34 and into you know late maybe even after 35 we'll see how far we get but but the context is in chapter 34 of jeremiah the people of israel they're in a bad situation babylon's chomping uh at the bit to wipe out jerusalem they've already been through two sieges and waves of captivity and persecution but they're getting ready to face the big one in 586 bc jeremiah who's the prophet who's been telling them hey repent of your sins follow the lord but they refused and they were disobedient to god and and the more they they started sinning the more trouble they found themselves in and now the king of babylon nebuchadnezzar's besieged the city and people are in trouble jeremiah's in a dungeon but he pulls out from 17 years earlier he pulls out a story that happened something that he did and it's meant to be an illustration for the people in chapter 34 the lord will indict the people saying you guys have slaves and you were supposed to set slaves free by the way when the bible speaks on slavery some people say the bible condones slavery well that's ridiculous bible god never condones slavery in his word but he does seek to regulate slavery and some people perceive that as being condoning it but it's not in bible days if you were a people like let's just make you know say like the amalekites and you always wanting to you know wipe out jews so they were always fighting against the jews um or one way the other the jews fighting the americans either way in those days in bible times if you fought somebody you would either what do you do when you win the battle if you beat your opponent the amalekites you've got a bunch of people left over and they want to kill you still so what do you do do you kill them all some people did that so that they're no longer a problem or you you could let them go but they'll come back to fight another day and that tend to happen as well or you could enslave the people that you fought and that was oftentimes in bible times in ancient history what people people groups did you'd fight them and if they lost you were slaves and so the jews did have slaves because they were fighting amalekites but god says i don't want you to keep those slaves you you um he basically put parameters and said you need to let them all go after a certain you know seven year period and there was the bond slave and there's all kinds of things that were talked about that but god always sought to regulate slavery and if you follow the bible's example slavery would have eventually been abolished if you follow the word of god what it says about that because i believe slavery obviously is evil and and there's times in history that were worse than others of course but all that to say the jew said okay lord we'll get rid of our slaves and they did for a while in chapter 34 but then they kind of came back on their deal and they went and got their slaves back and the lord said that's it you guys are toast you guys are in trouble because you've sort of you know gone back on the deal you know you were supposed to obey me and free those people and you kept them in slavery and so the lord says that's it you're toast and that's where jeremiah chapter 34 leaves off and we pick up chapter 35 and now the lord's going to speak about the children's disobedience and that's hopefully what we start to kind of learn let's take a look jeremiah chapter 35 we're going to find in chapter 35 there's two sections there's there's an object lesson first we have the object then we have the lesson the object is going to be spoken of in chapter 35 verses 1 through 11 and the lesson itself verses 12 through 19. let's take a look normally we take a single verse on our sundays but i want to cover this whole chapter so strap on your safety belt here we go it says in verse 1 the word which came unto jeremiah from the lord in the days of jehoiakim the son of josiah king of judah saying go to the house of the raqqa lights and speak unto them and bring them into the house of the lord into one of the chambers and give them wine to drink then i took jayaz aniya the son of jeremiah the son of hebaz itnea and his brethren and all his sons and the whole house of the rahumites and i brought them into the house of the lord into the chamber of the sons of hanan the son of egg da leah for you that are expectant mothers by the way some good bible names for you to consider for your children you know i like uh hotspot ania or igdelia but the um it's interesting the name ignalia it actually means yahweh is great or god is great by the way have you ever heard muslims and if you have somebody who's a tourist and they say what does that mean they'll say well it means god is great but it doesn't mean that it means allah is greater i hope you know that because you know 600 years after christ the muslims came and muhammad invented his new religion and he said and that's one of the things they all say is allah is greater greater than who jehovah the god of the jews and the god of the christians uh it's a very clear uh sort of insult to christianity and to judaism just so you know but i've noticed that so much of islam is really borrowed from judaism and christianity you'll notice that and it came 600 years after those two faiths were long well underway but this is one of those names um this this guy named igdalia his name means god that is jehovah is great and that's kind of interesting and it says he was a man of god that's good delineation who this guy was which was by the chamber of the princes which was above the chamber of masaya the son of shalom the keeper of the door and i sat before the sons of the house of reckobites pots full of wine and cups and i said unto them drinky wine but they said we will not we will drink no wine for jonadab our the son of richard our father commanded us saying you shall drink no wine neither ye nor your sons forever neither shall you build house nor sow seed nor plant vineyard nor have any but all your days you shall dwell in tents that you may live many days in the land where you be strangers thus have we obeyed the voice of yondab the son of raqqa our father in that he has charged us to drink no wine all our days we our wives our sons and our daughters nor to build houses for us to dwell in neither have we vineyard nor filled in our seed but we have dwelt in tents and have obeyed the and done according to all that young the father commanded us but it came to pass when nebuchadnezzar king of babylon came up into the land that we said come let us go to jerusalem for fear of the army of the chaldeans and for fear of the army of the syrians so we dwelt at jerusalem so verses 1 through 11 we have the object of the lesson the object and it's the rehabilits this is an intense persev group of people intense yes they live in tents it says here what's the deal with these people sorry it's the fourth service i i get a little weird in this fourth service but um but what is this thing about these people that won't drink wine and they won't live in houses they only live in tents and they're there and jeremiah offers some wine and say we're not going to drink wine even though you jeremiah are a prophet of lord and we are sitting in the temple of the lord in jerusalem we're still not going to drink your wine wow who are these rochavites and what does this story have to do with anything well before we get to the the lesson itself let's let's talk about who the raqqabites are well the um the arachimites are the sons of rekhav which is that's the way you say a bee in hebrew by the way so it's we say rika bites but it's supposed to come from down here like you know you're kind of hocking the lugi and um and white is like v um that's who these people are who are they well they're the sons of rickoff and you say yeah but are they jews the answer is no now people confuse sometimes the rachabites with the jews because they're kind of woven in some of the jewish stories in history there are a few famous uh rocket lights one was a woman named jail i say jail with the nail remember jail with the nail who was she well she's the lady that took a big nail or a tent stake and hammered it through a guy's head to the ground one of those nice bible stories for you and your children as you're tucking your kids in at nighttime uh good night son uh no i'm just kidding that's probably we should say that for later it is a horrible story in the bible but this horrible dude he gets killed by this lady named jail with a tent stake she is um a kenite who is a descendant of the or you know the rockabites are descendants of the kenites so it's a group of people that we bump into here and there in the bible but not much we really don't know much about the recoveites but we know where they started to join the jews it goes all the way back to when the jews were enslaved in egypt 450 years were the slaves the jews slaves there in egypt and when the lord raised up moses to deliver the people out of the pharaoh's hand there in egypt do you remember what happened moses was there for 40 years in egypt raised as a prince of egypt but then he was sort of excluded out to the back side of the desert where he was with a group of people called the midianites the midianites were none other than the rakhavites the same people the sons of rakhav and linked to a group of people called the keynights i'm giving you these for you bible students you can look all this stuff up if you want to and trace and track because you can do that if you if you put some work into it but do you remember zipporah moses's wife she was this little shepherd gal that lived out in the backside of the desert and he married her zipporah who was a midianite who was also linked to these rachevites not jews and and jethro moses father-in-law some there's different names for jeffree by the way jethro in the old testament but um but he was also not a jew but jethro if you recall went with the children of israel as they left egypt and many of the rocket lights traveled with the children of israel as they left egypt and they were called the mixed multitudes some of the people that were non-jews that were traveling with the children of israel as they wandered in the wilderness and that's where they picked up these these little people this little group of people called the wreckablites and they stayed with them for hundreds of years even into the promised land fast forward to where the children of israel make it into the promised land and some people are living in the new houses that they got there from the canaanites in the land of promise but the raqqavites stayed in tents and drank no wine why did that happen well one of the the fathers of the rahabites that lived in a day during the time of jehu does jehu ring a bell for you bible uh students jay what was he most famous for anybody jehu nobody crickets tumbleweeds are blown across the sanctuary as i'm jay who was known for road rage it says he drove furiously he drove his chariot in a way that people saw him coming miles away and other groups jehu he's crazy man that guy like dukes a hazard crazy like him in his chariot there's a story where they're looking over the wall who's that uh oh that's jay look at he's driving like a madman that's that's what it says but why was jehu driving like a madman well he with another dude was in the chariot and they were racing toward jezebel's castle do you remember ahab and jezebel they were exceedingly wicked king and queen and jezebel was like the leader and she was this wicked kind of witch-like queen who was a worshiper of bale this god and she had all these prophets of baal and they did all kinds of crazy stuff and and she was this evil wicked woman and jay was coming to to you know take her out not on a date if you know what i mean so jay who comes skidding in with his chariot and and and she knows he's coming so she gets all gussied up puts on her makeup and brushes her tooth and um sorry and she sticks her head out the window hey jayu what's up and jay who said who's on my side throw her out of the window and so these two eunuchs it's okay i grabbed jezebel and she hits the pavement and dies there true story jehu runs her over several times with the chariot and then he uh it's a long story um another child story for you uh to tell your kids at night when you're going to bed sorry i don't know why i'm on those stories right now but there was a guy in the chariot that was passionate also about getting rid of all these you know prophets of baal baal worship moloch worship kimash asteroth all these gods and goddesses that had permeated the jewish society and they had forsaken the true and living god and worshiped these horrible gods where they literally some of those gods like moloch they would sacrifice their children on the altar to moloch so jehu was passionate along with the dude that was in his chariot who was that a guy named john adam and john adab is the guy that these rachabites refer to what did jonah john adam do well 300 years before jeremiah does this and sets these guys down and offers them wine in the temple 600 or 300 years before that this guy john adab in the time of jehu and john and ebb he sat his kids down john and dab did he said hey you guys we are rachovites you and kids and he said from this day forward we will be set apart from all the other people in israel we're going to live in tents not have houses we're going to not have you know crops and fields or vineyards we're not going to even have seeds for vineyards but we we will live in tents and the idea is they would be shepherds nomads and they would just kind of live in tents around the middle east and and and he made his his kids do that and what's amazing is his kids said okay cool and so they lived in tents and now fast forward 300 years those same people are doing the same things they're only temporarily in jerusalem because nebuchadnezzar the babylonians coming through with this massive army and they're afraid they said man we got to get into a city with walls and so they went in and hid out in jerusalem while they were under siege so jeremiah now 300 years after john adab tells his kids we're not going to drink wine we're not going to eat grapes we're not going to have farms we're not going to we're going to live in tents they they're obedient to that for 300 years then jeremiah calls them in and says hey have some wine and they said we're not going to do that. why did jeremiah do that well that brings us to the lesson itself the object of the lesson the rehab erahmites what's the lesson itself well let's take a look let's read the rest of this chapter the lord speaks through jeremiah in verse 12. then came the word of the lord unto jeremiah saying thus saith the lord of hosts the god of israel go and tell the men of judah and the inhabitants of jerusalem will you not receive instruction to hearken to my words saith the lord the words of john adab the son of rehab that he had commanded his sons not to drink wine are performed for unto this day they drink none but they obey their father's commandment and i was standing i have spoken to you rising early and speaking but you have hearkened not unto me i have sent also unto you my servants the prophets rising up early and sending them saying return ye now every man from his evil way and amend your doings and go not after other gods to serve them and you shall dwell in the land that i have given to you and to your fathers but you have not inclined your ear nor hearkened unto me because the sons of john adab the son of rehab have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them but this people have not hearkened unto me therefore thus saith the lord the god the lord god of hosts the god of israel behold i will bring upon judah and upon the inhabitants of jerusalem all the evil that i have pronounced against them because i have spoken unto them but they have not heard and i have called unto them but they have not answered and jeremiah said to the house of the recoverites thus saith the lord of god of host the god of israel because you have obeyed the commandment of john adab your father and have kept all his precepts and done according to all that he hath commanded you therefore thus saith the lord of hosts the god of israel john adab the son of rehab shall not want a man to stand before me forever that's just hard to say that last sentence what that what does that mean it's basically saying this the the rachobites are going to live forever they're going to you're going to have recovers on the earth and around the lord there'll never be a lack on the earth for a rocket light because of their faithfulness and their obedience the lord commends these people but these people are the object lesson for the jews who are living in total rebellion not giving their slaves up and and clinging to their idols and their false gods and the lord says i'm going to do the evil that's i've told you see the whole book of jeremiah jeremiah has been saying that evil is coming you guys the babylonians are going to trounce us and we're going to suffer and it's going to be horrible jeremiah but they hated jeremiah they punched him in the face and they threw him in dungeon when this when this story happens jeremiah is headed for prison for three years at least because the people hated his message but as it turns out it was god's message to the people and it was just saying the racquetbites well it was a compare and a contrast did you see what the lord compared the rockabites and the people of israel the first comparison that we see is you have this dude named john adab which we don't know much about other than he was a normal dude sinful just like all of us but he told his kids what to do and they obeyed him god the father told his kids the jews what to do and they disobeyed him and they disobeyed him century after century the rahabites they obeyed their father for 300 years straight the jews for 850 years up to this point they had constantly rebelled against god the father in heaven in the rehabilites the lord would reward their obedience with the jews he would punish them for their disobedience and the lord uses this compare and contrast with these these people the rahabites who go down as obedient kids and the lord says you guys are going to be blessed because of your obedience interesting you see that object lesson was because the jews just refused to do what the lord asked them to do and and they rebelled against him century after century now this is where this object lesson as we new testament christian church we read this old testament story what does this mean for us is the lord still requiring obedience does the lord want us to obey now this is good for us because do you remember a couple weeks ago we talked about the law of moses the mosaic law you know if you read the first five books of the old testament you see the law given to the jews that includes stuff like you know don't eat bats don't eat bacon that's the worst one the jews couldn't eat bacon they they had to keep the sabbath um they had to make sacrifice on the altars in jerusalem at the temple they had to keep the yom kippur and all these feasts and festivals and all this stuff they had to do it but they did not do it um and so we talked about are we still under the law of the old testament the answer is no we we did a whole study on that and so we say okay good we're not under the law and that was a great time to study that but but here's where christianity gets a little fuzzy for people when it comes to this issue of obedience how is a person saved what is saved all about to begin with i i worry sometimes that christians we forget to tell people what we're talking about if you go up to a person on the street hey are you saved and we know that means becoming a christian yeah but what saved from what well it's becoming christians so that you aren't judged for your sin well what's judgment of sin hell and death eternal death and hell is that something you'd like to be saved from man i sure would i don't want to go to hell for all eternity that's to be unsaved but when the bible talks about salvation in this best sense it's talking about being saved from hell here's the problem i'm going to give you the whole thing in a nutshell right here we're all sinners every person on this planet apart from jesus we've sinned the bible says all of sin falls short of the glory of god there's no one righteous not even one person and if you think you're righteous that's even unrighteous right there you're sinful even in that so we all have to acknowledge that we've sinned but the biggest problem is the cost of sin the bible in romans the lord spells it out for us the wages of sin is death and not just kicking the bucket being buried six feet under pushing up daisies the idea of death is eternal death and hell the bible talks more about hell than it does about heaven it's it's not don't listen to these people say hell's not real and every love wins in the end and everybody gets to go to heaven that's just not what the bible teaches not even close read your bible the bible says broad is the path that leads to destruction hell but narrow is the past it leads to eternal life so you say okay so i'd like to be saved from hell and death and destruction well good news the god of the universe actually as it turns out loves you for god so loved the world even though you're a rascal sinner messed up person you've fallen short we you and me both we deserve death in hell god loves you you little rascal that's what the lord says i for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him will not perish that's hell but have everlasting life that's heaven so when you say do you want to be saved people need to know what you're talking about well saved if you believe the bible which i do um hell is real you know somebody means a movie about that hell in heaven heaven is real i saw that uh trailer for that movie heaven israel i'm sure some of you guys thought but you know the equal is true hell is real too and we need to be saved from that how are you saved well that's it god says you guys are sinful the cost of your sin is death so i'm going to send my only begotten son jesus he'll come who lives perfectly he's not a sinner and he'll die on a cross for the sins of the whole world and that's why john the baptist when he saw jesus said behold the lamb of god that takes away the sins why because the old lambs that were sacrificed in the old testament didn't take away sin jesus would be the lamb that would take away the sins of the whole world so that excuse me in romans chapter 10 in talking about salvation it says this it says that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the lord jesus christ that god raised him up from the dead that is to believe you're a sinner to understand that he died for my sins and that he was buried but three days later rose again like he said he would why is the raising from the dead so important a lot of people made claims of things religious gurus and stuff like that nobody made this claim if you destroy this body three days later i'll raise it up from the dead jesus made that claim and when jesus died a brutal death on the cross they buried him in a tomb and they he rose three days later proving his claim of who he was well how do we know it was really he really rose from the dead more than 500 eyewitness accounts written of in the scriptures that saw jesus after he died and rose and those people that saw him were willing to die bloody brutal torturous deaths not denying the truth that jesus died and rose from the grave it's an amazing thing that happened in history that turned the whole world upside down when jesus came and died on the cross rose from the grave everything changed in the world that's why billions of people have followed jesus from that day forward so good news you and i we don't go to hell because guess what if we accept christ and believe in our heart jesus that he died that he rushes forward he says you will be saved that is your sins are forgiven what about repentance yep you got to repent of your sins repentance means to acknowledge your sins before god and say lord i am a sinner and i deserve punishment but you took my punishment for me well brett i think repentance means that you've got to have all your sins taken care of and conquered that you need to have them all conquered well good luck being saved if that's the rule because the longer i'm a christian i like paul the apostle i start to say man i i the longer i've been a christian the more far i realize i am from literal righteousness remember paul in his old days said oh i paul i do the things i don't want to do and i don't do the things i do want to do oh who's going to deliver me from this death and then he says but i thank jesus christ who's jesus the one who took the sins and took that penalty for sin on our behalf so that's why we call it good news or the fancy christian word gospel the gospel is the good news that jesus died for the sins of the world how are you saved do you have to earn it no do you have to deserve it none of us can do that it's a free gift that's why it's called grace amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me the word grace means undeserved unearned favor that god wants to show to you and ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 says you're saved by grace through faith not of your works lest any man should boast okay now are you guys still with me so far that's the gospel message you gotta accept christ be saved forgiven saved by his grace you didn't deserve it you didn't earn it but then why does the bible teach that we're supposed to be obedient to god's word obedience and and how does that play into the new testament church if we don't have to keep the law of the old testament man we're free brett i'm saved by god's grace right after church i'm going to go do some meth because i'm saved by grace well paul anticipated such stupidity and paul said should we continue in sin and let grace abound what was his answer anybody god forbid or may it never be that's what he said in other words when you're saved by god's grace you don't just use his grace as a doormat to wipe your muddy feet sinful muddy feet and say okay thanks for saving i think you're all good to go no we're saved by god's grace through faith we didn't earn it we didn't deserve it but people struggle with this so what about james brett james said this faith without works is dead so you got to do good works if you want to be saved and so some you know religious groups try to say you gotta hopefully you're good outweighs your bad and maybe you'll make it to heaven that's false teaching you and i are saved by grace period but listen james and paul aren't disagreeing it's not like james said paul's wrong faith you know without works is dead so paul was wrong that's not what james is saying they complement one another when you're saved by grace through faith one of the natural things that will happen to you is god will start to work in your heart and stir in your life a conscience remember the new covenant that we taught about a few weeks ago the new covenant said i will write not on tables of stone but i will write on the tables of men's hearts my will what is that that the lord would give you sort of a conscience to know what to do i like to call it a knower you've got a knower hopefully between those ears of yours you got a knower it's your conscience what is your conscience it's that part that the lord tells you that's just not right let's see here i'm a married man and i've got this lady at work that she kind of digs me and she wants to go out and and have drinks after work and and uh it seems like she's sort of coming on to me should i do this thing and your knower says you are an idiot and that's called sin and you don't want to do that the lord he put that knower in you just like the the birds know how to fly south for the winter who told them that god did instinctively and i believe under the new covenant a lot of what we know man the lord already tells you in your heart should i steal these funds from the bank no that's wrong it's immoral it's wrong not only that we have god's word in black and white that even tells us outside of the law of moses we have other things the bible says this is called sin and this is called righteousness and so you and i in new testament times we're not saved by you know making sure we never sin again none of us would be saved if that were the case but once you are saved it's not faith and works that saves you it's not faith or works that saves you it's faith that works that you're saved by it's it's the faith that you have to say lord i believe you died on the cross for my sins and rose from the grave and i accept the free gift of salvation and you're saved but when you're saved works will be evidence of that salvation that happens it's not that you're going to be perfect or even be amazing you're not going to be instantly mother teresa you know once you accept christ but the lord will start to stir your heart to do the right thing to make better choices and to be obedient to his word now i've got to say this and this makes people nervous but oh well if you're a person yeah accepted christ when i was a kindergarten i said yes to jesus and raised my hand and so i'm saved by god's grace but i'm still you know looking at porn online and i'm sleeping with everybody i can find and i'm kind of drinking and doing meth and pretty much i i follow hitler's world view if that's you can i guarantee that you're saved because in kindergarten you said yes i believe in jesus well here's the problem maybe you never really did believe maybe it was never really from your heart maybe we're not seeing good works in your life so there's evidence that maybe you never really were saved but the person who's truly saved you will see there'll be start to be slow changes where they're no longer you know wanting to do the wrong thing but at least trying to do the right thing with failure even included so when you become a christian it's not that you're going to be perfect it's that you're perfectly forgiven but then your heart will start to change that's a natural byproduct of becoming a christian so to answer this question about obedience when does the new testament church that's saved by grace through faith not of our works when is obedience part of the equation when you're a christian now here's the funny thing about this obedience thing these these rachaelites are obedient and the jews are not but we can learn from these people um we can learn a few new testament lessons from these people let's just note three of them and then we'll start to pack things up and call it a day the first of the three is notice with me that they were tent dwellers did you know that tent dwelling is a big deal in the bible um who else in the bible for a season were tent dwellers anybody yeah the jews israel after they left egypt they went do you remember the first stop after they left egypt they went to a little town called sukkot well what was sukkot does anybody know for you bible scholars out there what is the name sukkot mean anybody tents they went to a town called sukkot tent town now weather was a place where it was just full of tents or if it was a place where they actually manufactured tents i don't know but the jews after they left egypt they needed some tents because they were for the next 40 years gonna wander in the wilderness and they needed some tents and at sukkot they had they got all their tents at tent town great stuff now they wandered for 40 years do you remember what happened though when they came into the promised land and they packed up their tents and said oh glad we don't have to live in those tents for you know any longer 40 years a long time to go camping they did that but do you remember what the lord told them god said listen you guys i want you to have a feast one of those festivals that is a jewish feast called sukkot what is it called well a lot of us in americans we call the feast of tabernacles but it's really the feast of tents that's why it's called sukkot and if you go to jerusalem today on the feast of tabernacles what you'll find is everybody in their backyard have set up little lean twos and little tents and tarps and stuff and they celebrate and they remember the time that they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years intense and why why did the lord want them to do that and and why do they still do that thousands of years later because the lord wanted them to remember that they're strangers and pilgrims strangers in a strange land that this world is not their home it's almost like the lord wanted them to not be so planted here but to remember that there's something bigger in the future that god had in store so this idea of sukkot the feast of tabernacles they would all get their tents and remind their children this is when we all lived in tents and and then in the new testament that theme continues that you and i are also supposed to have that sort of temporary dwelling mindset that's an interesting question are you dug in here in this world oh man i love this life and i love this world and i live for this world if you're doing that has your world been shaken i think the people that are really planted in this world and in our nation as americans and our homes and our cars 2020 was a year that kind of shook people's little situation up because things aren't always so sure businesses going out of business because of all the lockdowns and people upset and our nation divided people are wondering what's going to happen on wednesday for crying out loud there's more armed military soldiers in the state capital than there are in all of afghanistan and iraq combined does that cause anybody concern for our nation we're living in this crazy time and i don't know about you but i'm feeling more and more like a stranger and a pilgrim in a strange land i i don't feel quite as comfy and at home as as i was when i was an american kid in the 1970s when things were all good and rosy and all this stuff now you're kind of like man our world is kind of tweaking out i wonder if the lord does that on purpose did you know that in the new testament we have that same kind of language listen to first peter chapter 2 verse 11. i'll read it to you first peter 2 11 says dearly beloved i beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstained from all fleshly lusts which war against the soul and he goes on and talks about how you know there's other people that are doing all kinds of evil but by your good works you'll behold the lord and glorify god you know that's the thing we're called to be strangers and pilgrims in this land not too seated you know permanently here it was jesus who said man don't lay up for yourself treasure on this earth where moth and rust and thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourself treasure in heaven you can't take it with you but you can't send it ahead of you that's what the lord says paul the apostle would tell the church to the colossae christians he'd say listen don't let your affection be things on this earth but set your affections on things above that is heavenly because this world is temporary this life is short life has been a vapor don't get too planted and settled here but live with a bigger picture in mind you and i are also called to be tent dwellers in that sense not to be too planted that was john adab's whole reason for telling the recoverites hey i want you to live in tents because i don't want you to get too comfy too settled here and now with these people you're as strange people you're called out people so we can learn from these rochabites for saying you know what we we need to kind of have that same sort of temporary mindset that we're not here on this life in this earth forever they were committed to being tent dwellers but number two i observed they were committed to discipline the rockabytes go down in history even though they're unknown for virtually anything else they go down in history as a disciplined bunch who say man we will not drink wine we will not live in houses and have vineyards and they're commended by the lord through the prophet jeremiah here for their discipline see the problem is discipline often goes out the window for us modern day christians because we're saying we're saved by grace it's all good freedom in christ which we do have but we throw discipline out the window and and doing what god wants us to do so we just take up sin and do it and we think whatever i'm saying by grace and this is why we have to remember why doing the right thing doing a biblical thing you could say it this way not sinning sin by the way by definition it's not just murder and adultery it's those things we i think people wrongly think sin is the big ones if you kill someone that's sin if you couldn't that's it commit adultery but did you know sin could be having just a you're driving on the road and you have a little bit of a bad attitude about the person driving in front of you that's called sin the wages of sin is death if that's the only sin you ever did believe it or not in god's economy that sin is i don't agree with that who cares god's the one who makes the rules and god said if you sin the wage of that sin is death so then now that we're saved our sins are forgiven and we're christian why should we even try to do good stuff well there there's the the part that's so important to understand and i've said it this way a million times you know sin is not bad because it's forbidden it's forbidden because it's bad uh you parents know what i'm talking about now johnny you're two years old and i really don't want you to stick your tongue in the electrical outlet now why i want to stick my tongue it's tasty in there [Music] and mom and dad if they love that child they will say no i will not allow you to stick your tongue in that electrical outlet why because most parents don't want to see their kids electrocuted that's a pretty good parrot that would say no to them and deny them the access for their tongue in the electrical outlet now that's a ridiculous example but is it more ridiculous when god says listen um you guys that are living together outside of marriage you're not married but you're living together and having sex no oh god just doesn't want us to have fun no god knows you're sticking your tongue in an electrical outlet he knows that living together before you're married i know this some of you are like brett your soul fashioned yeah call me old-fashioned but you can also call that biblical the bible says first corinthians chapter 7 talks about how it is good for a man not to touch a woman what bro you mean like this no not like that the word touch there is like a romantic sensual kind of touch it's good for a man not to touch a woman nevertheless to avoid fornication now stop for a second the word fornication greek word porneia porneia is anything that is sexually immoral porneia the greek word it's where we get our dumb word pornography like geography and sociology and pornography like it's some science but it's actually just we used to call it when i was a kid smut but now it's pornography are some of you pornographists hopefully not because that sex outside of the marriage boundary see in 1st corinthians 7 it's good for a man not to touch a woman but to avoid fornication sexual immorality let every man have his own wife and every wife have her own husband see i know this is old fashioned but the bible says anything that's sexual inside of a marriage and and for those of you that are public school one marriage not multiple marriages anything that that uh that is you know monogamy doesn't mean one at a time i'm just trying to help you guys out here because our culture is so wacko but anything that's outside of marriage that's sexual is called porneia fornication anything that's sexual inside of a of a marriage relationship the bible says the marriage bed is undefiled so here's one example of something that our culture says god we don't we don't care about what you say we're going to do whatever we want we're going to sleep together we're going to sleep around hey we got to try the plumbing to make sure it works before we're married the plumbing works einstein i'm just telling you it just works god's the one who made your bodies he made it work it's kind of amazing it's amazing how stupid we are oh but i but you say brett you're just being legalistic and rule-orient no the bible teaches us to be obedient when it comes to porneia sexual immorality in the world and even the christian church largely today is like yeah whatever are we like the jews who just kind of shook their fists in gaza and we're going to worship baal and we're going to keep our slaves it's the same thing that if we're not careful we could be doing and we say i'm sorry by grace or faith but i'm going to keep sleeping with my girlfriend or i'm going to keep you know doing this or that sin that the bible says and calls sin why does god call that bad for example the young couple living together before they're married why is that called sin it's not because he wants to ruin your fun or make it harder on you brad it's too hard financially we had to combine our checking and we we pay for the same apartment it's cheaper it's more affordable yeah that's just an excuse to keep your sin going but but the lord says don't do that because it's gonna be bad for you it's gonna hurt you you know what's amazing about the whole living together before people are married if you look at the secular statistics on it this isn't even the bible your odds of ending up in divorce and disaster in marriage go up exponentially if you lived together before you were married who understood who would have guessed that god the one who made your body and made your emotional psyche and all that stuff and he said listen if you want your situation to work out don't live together before you're married if you want to be in total disaster and see your marriage end up in destruction then go ahead and live together but i would say no that's called sin sin means to miss the mark be off course of what god has for you it's not that he's trying to ruin the fun he loves you so much like the parent who doesn't want the child to stick their tongue in the electrical socket the lord is saying don't do these sinful things and man we could go on and on about what the bible calls sin and what's so funny to me is if you look at all the secular studies about all these things that you know that uh that the bible calls sin as it turns out long term they all kind of mess you up if it's called sin in the bible you can study it it ends up messing you up long term isn't it funny how the sexual revolution of the 60s we all celebrated that man freedom sex love and all that stuff and then suddenly came aids hiv and uh and then you know and sexually transmitted disease have been around since bible times i don't know if you follow the news have you heard of the most recent gonorrhea this is fun topic for church a couple weeks ago there was a big study that came out showing that there's a new strain of gonorrhea that is untreatable and the medicines and the antibiotics stuff don't work anymore and it's this very horrible strain that's causing all kinds of people massive pain and suffering and they don't know what to do about it i know what to do it's called abstinence it's what the bible prescribed no wonder sexually transmitted diseases have gone rampant around the world you know when i was a kid in in in high school there were like you know six sexually transmitted diseases today there's over 80. it's an amazing difference you know and back when i was in high school they'd say you know say oh you're sleeping around okay you got got his std whatever uh take a shot and you're good to go a little penicillin a little depro or whatever you're good to go nowadays it could cost you like your life like sex some sexually transmitted diseases are even deadly and yet we still say we want sex we want sex and we want it the way we want it and so we're going to do it and all the while this loving father in heaven saying actually i created you guys and here's the way sex is beautiful and wonderful and meant to be it's within the boundary of a husband and a wife that's just one example i could give you hundreds but we don't have time but is obedience still a thing the answer is yes so you know it's it's all about obedience in fact um you know we've looked at first of all they were tent dwellers number two they were committed to discipline but number three and this is how we end it they were passionate about obedience have you ever noticed that there's some people that are so passionate about things that are lesser than your faith you know oftentimes the people of god are put to shame christians are put to shame by the dedication that other people show to lesser causes youtube is one example of that like what about the guy that has his backyard have you seen the youtube where they they get this little contraption where they roll a ball and it goes down a channel and then it falls and plops into water and the water splash makes this other thing move up and then that thing tips another bit of dominoes and dominoes go around and it takes this little thing you're like wow and then eventually it tips over the squirrel feeder and feeds the squirrel the guy just spent three years of his life passionate about a squirrel feeding contraption like i'm amazed you know and even fun stuff some of you like you know look at a green bay packer fan paint his body yellow and green and and have cheese on his head passionate about the packers that's great packers are great but it's funny when it comes to things that we really should be passionate about that are more important i mean there's even some good stuff some of you athletes are passionate you get up early and you run and you lift weights and you train and you want to get better at your your sport that's great but i'm always amazed at how people are so passionate about things that well someday your athleticism is going to go out the window and someday you're going to be too old to do that stuff and someday you're going to die and more importantly where are you going to go north or south heaven or hell and that's something you should be passionate about more than whatever it is that we were about you know our diet or our working out or more than you know our squirrel feeder in the backyard whatever it is that you're into is it as important as being passionate about obedience to the lord so these guys these rakabhites are an amazing example of people that were passionate about obedience and i'm just going to run through some quick scripture here and then wrap it up listen to what first peter chapter 1 says in verse 13. this is new testament wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is brought to you at the revelation of jesus christ so man be hopeful because of god's grace we already talked about what that means but then it says but do this as obedient children not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance you know before you were saved before you knew that that was even called sin now that you're saved man don't go to those former lusts but listen as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of con conversation because as it is written be holy as i am holy lord is holy and the lord says i want you to be holy too not to ruin your fun but to keep you where you need to be to keep you safe and happy and blessed jesus said blessed in this is the sermon on the mount is a big deal matthew chapter 5. jesus said blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be what filled do you want a full filled life because you know the opposite is true as well not blessed are those which hunger and thirst after unrighteousness sinful things for they shall be empty how many of us have lived enough life to know that those lustful deceits and those things that we thought were going to be so satisfying and they were so empty and left you feeling empty and hear the lord who created you says man if you hunger and thirst after righteousness not sinfulness i will fill you up holiness always leads to happiness jesus said when they asked a lawyer came up to him in matthew 22 and said which is the greatest of the commandments and jesus said first one is thou shalt love the lord thy god with all your heart with all your mind with all your soul with all your strength the second one is like unto it love your neighbor as yourself upon these two commandments hangs all the law and the prophets that's what jesus said i love how jesus kind of boils it down you know what are we supposed to do love god and love people love the lord thy god with all your heart mind soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself this is what the bible calls us to do i love that because you know anything opposite of that is missing the mark sinfulness and that's one of the ones that i feel like our culture our world is greatly forgotten and lost i see so much of a lack of love today man we need to be as christians we need to be not the most conspiratorial we should not be the most political we should not be the most militant we should not be the most smarty pants what are we called to be we're called to be the most loving people by this will all men know that you are my disciples jesus said by your politics no by your love one for another how are we doing are you being obedient on that most basic fundamental as you kind of assess how you treated people and how you thought about people this last week are you are you obedient to that for those of you that were here last week i gave you a challenge um the screen time challenge okay moment of honesty those of you here last week how many guys took up the screen time challenge raise your hand nice you guys beat the second service but not even close to the 8 o'clock the 8 o'clock is like more than half that people took how many guys were successful in cutting your screen time in half raise your hand one two three four that's great that's great good for you guys i was close i think there's still a few minutes and maybe if i if i leave my phone alone right now i might make it to 50 percent but i'm i'm just i yesterday i went a little over but it was hard i took the challenge myself it was hard uh but but but i learned so much about how well actually my screen time is kind of more valuable than i thought i'm getting some work done but i also found what a great thing to be able to give that other time the challenge was to cut your screen time in half and spend the other time in prayer in the word and you know as i as i attempted to do that last week um man i just felt so good being able to give more time to prayer and there was almost this knee jerk i felt myself reach for the phone and i'm like nope i'm gonna pray and it was really healthy for me to do that and i hope it was for you too but here's the thing for all of you that raised your hand at first but didn't on the second are you feeling guilty now sinner no no no no wait see that's the beautiful thing you and i we're christians and we do sin and we fall short and we make mistakes but i'm so thankful see here's how we kind of wrap this up yes you and i are called to obedience and and the reason we're supposed to obey is not because god just wants you to obey it's because he wants you to do well and he loves you as a loving father so he gives you rules that are going to be helpful for your happiness holiness needs to happiness but your salvation is not affected by your failure or success in your good deeds your salvation is based on the cross the finished work of jesus christ i hope you're seeing the difference here salvation through the cross and then the result of that should be a people that say lord i want to follow you i want to do good works and i want to break off sinful behaviors in my life and i want to be successful in the things you want me to do but when you fall short i've got some really good news and this is how i end it first john chapter 1 verse 9 says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness you may have failed in your screen time challenge as did i probably um and you know i fail every day do i beat myself up no i'm thankful that i can go back to the cross and say lord when you died on the cross you died for all my sins past present and future the hebrews says you you you died once for all and so i can be forgiven and have a brand new start right now right here and then i can start out a new day every day is new how long does the lord's mercy last anybody forever over and over in the bible my mercy endureth forever that's the good news of the gospel so what i'd like to do is um you know maybe as i sound a little more like a preacher today because i am one um maybe some of you are feeling a little bro fire and brimstone man you're talking about living together and sin and stuff and i'm feeling kind of guilty good but you know what's great about that is you can take that sin now and say lord forgive me help me to change my mind and my attitude about that sin and go the opposite direction and and there's no greater place in my opinion to do that than going to the table of communion that's why we want to end with just a time of going to the table would you break out that little communion covid free communion pack i might add as you break out that little little communion if you didn't get one of these there's a few guys walking up and down the aisles they'd love to get you set up with one of these but um what i'd like to do is take this final few minutes and just remember what jesus did on the cross what a great thing you know before jesus went to the cross on that night um before he was apprehended in the garden of gethsemane he was at an upper room with the disciples and he took the bread and he broke and he said take and eat this bread and eat this in remembrance of me this is my body and then he took the cup and he said drink this cup when you drink this cup you're remembering my blood that will be shed now by the way at that point the disciples freaked out um not the 12 as much but the greater group of disciples in the bible there's a group of 70 and even 100 disciples that were following that bunch at that time but it was at that statement some of the extra kind of peripheral disciples heard jesus say eat my body drink my blood and like cannibalism we're out of here they literally the bible says they bolted but the other disciples they stayed and said what are you talking about but later it would only be later they realized that he was about to lay his life down that instead of them going to hell and suffering for all eternity in hell that jesus who was innocent of anything that he would lay his life down and they would beat him and bruise him put a crown of thorns on his head and and nails in his hand and feet a spear in his side and they would torture and crucify jesus so they were to eat that bread to remember what jesus did for them and when they drink the cup they were to remember that innocent blood peter talks about that and says you are not redeemed with silver and gold or things that are corruptable you and i as christians we were redeemed with peter says the precious blood of christ you and i sold ourselves out to sin sold ourselves out to be doomed to hell but christ said i'll buy you back and i'll pay the price for you and he paid the price with his shed blood so when we drink this cup we're remembering that jesus paid our price and our sins are washed away though your sins be like crimson they'll be as white as wool though your sins be like scarlet they'll be white as snow isaiah 1 18 says so that's why we remember the lord's body and his shed blood so would you peel back that clear top surface um it's that little clear plastic level and we'll get to the little piece of bread there brett i've got trouble with this where's the priest with a pointy hat why aren't you putting this wafer on our tongue that's the way it's supposed to be done hey if you were raised in a more liturgical church like that can i just humbly submit to you that those are traditions of men that came years later that were just kind of goofy ideas of men at anthony creek we try to stick with kind of what the bible teaches about church and the way we're supposed to do this and as it turns out jesus said as often as you eat this bread as often as drink this cup do this often in remembrance of me when you eat the bread you're remembering this when you drink the cup you're remembering that and and there all the traditions of man kind of got in the way i think but it does say when you do this to do this with sincerity so if you're not a christian if you've never confessed christ like when i told you about the gospel earlier and confessing with the mouth believe that if you've never done that you shouldn't take this communion because it doesn't mean anything to you you're going through the motions but i do want to say if you want to be a christian right now you're saying but i do know i'm a sinner and if that's what you're saying is true from the bible about hell and death and eternal life through christ man maybe you want that maybe you're online watching tonight today right now and you're just saying i want to be forgiven and i want to be saved as a christian being a christian is not going to church every sunday and giving your tithe and carrying a 20 pound bible and a fake smile it's not what a christian is a christian is a person says i'm a sinner and i acknowledge my sin to you lord and i repent and i believe that you died on the cross for my sins and roast from the grave and if you would confess that right now just you and the lord just quietly in your heart say lord i i believe and i'm a sinner and i need to be saved and forgiven and i believe that you died on the cross and that you rose from the grave romans 10 verse 9 you can't deny it it says and you will be saved forgiven then you can eat this bread saying i'm eating this bread remembering that jesus died on the cross for my sins and he took the beating for me and we eat this bread with thanksgiving not that because he just died but he also rose from the grave proving his claim so lord we thank you so much for this bread that we hold it reminds us of the greatest work that was ever done on this planet the saving of all of humanity from sin no other way to heaven by which men can be saved your word says but by jesus who died so we eat this bread in remembrance of you and what you did we thank you for this bread and we eat it now in jesus name amen let's eat of the lord together [Music] nothing but the blood of [Music] jesus what can make me again nothing but the blood of jesus oh precious is the lord that makes me white as [Music] nothing but the blood of jesus at the foil section of your uh communion elements there [Music] and there's the juice and lord how thankful we are for your shed blood and we drink this cup with thanksgiving in our heart thank you for washing us cleansing us giving us a brand new start lord i pray that satan like he says in the word you say that he he never stops accusing the brothers and sisters day and night of our sin but this is the cup of forgiveness and as we drink this we know we're forgiven and that we are in good standing with you so we thank you lord and we drink deeply of your love in jesus name let's drink of the lord together [Music] is let's all stand together sing that [Music] precious [Music] nothing but the blood [Music] is [Music] nothing but the blood [Music] oh we do thank you for that blood that you spilt for us that you pled for us father we thank you for just being able to meet with you at your table so we go now with joy in our hearts for we love you we thank you and in jesus name amen amen hey god bless you guys god bless your week you guys are dismissed [Music] you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 2,640

Rating: 4.9148936 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: YYjstqwIXh8

Length: 89min 15sec (5355 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 17 2021